Cleaning!
We spend the first few days of Holy Week cleaning out! I make a point to get to those tasks that I tend to put off, like scrubbing the bathtub and scouring the stove.
The past few Ember Days I have included sorting through wardrobes to make sure everything in there fits, is in good condition, and is something I like. I used to use the Holy Week clean out as the time to switch over clothing from winter to summer, but now that we live in Minnesota it's more of making sure things fit and aren't terribly stained or ripped while I dream of future summer. Still a good time to do any hand-me-down passing!
Thematic Movies
After all the cleaning, it's nice to have some family time with a movie!bh
Prince of Egypt is my go-to for Holy Thursday. The story of Passover is intimately tied to the story of the Passion! We've done just a CCC saint movie for the remaining days, but now that my kids are getting a little older I'm thinking of adding another full length movie to our tradition list. Suggestions welcome!
Flavors of Seder Dinner
I've struggled with what to call this Holy Thursday dinner. Because it's NOT a Seder and Catholics really shouldn't have those (this is a good take on why), but it does hearken to the flavors and memory of a Seder. Here's our typical menu:
Roasted Leg of Lamb
Horseradish Potato Gratin
Herb salad
Matza
Red Wine
We might read the Passover story from Exodus, but there's no attempt at the traditional prayers or ritual of a Seder.
Visiting the empty church
Some time between the Mass of the Lord's Supper and the Easter Vigil, I like to take the kids to the church so they can see how the tabernacle is empty and the altar bare. It really drives home to them what these few days of the Passion are so different from the rest of the year, and why Easter is so exciting!
Quiet Good Friday
Good Friday is typically the only day I might have off from singing in a week of heavy choir duties. Thus Good Friday is a day when I tend to keep us home and the day a little calmer. We especially try to observe the time between noon and 3pm in quiet. That is helped by most of that time falling during regular naps, but some backup plans are needed.
Good Friday is the one day of the year when the books and activities normally reserved for mass only are allowed to be used at home. I pull all the mass things, pewter saints statues, kid rosaries, and other items that normally have to be used with mom into a special Good Friday Holy Hour Basket and I light a taper candle on the mantel at noon. I tell the kids once they are up from nap that they are welcome to look at things in the basket while the vigil candle is burning on the mantle. The candle stays lit until 3pm. We normally pray a rosary and I might turn on some chant or sacred music.
The effort is well worth it!
Good Friday Fish Fry
I'm from Texas and Fish Fry is the most perfect way to break a fast! Preferably with a fish fry that includes lemon pepper catfish and hush puppies.
Confetti Eggs
On Holy Saturday we dye eggs! If you have not experienced confetti eggs, you are missing out.
I tried to find an easy link for how to make these, but all of them were more complicated than necessary! Here's the quick version:
- Use a butter knife to tap the end of an egg. Make a hole about the size of a nickle in the end of the egg. Use egg contents normally. Rinse, and dry the egg in an egg carton.
- Dye as you would hard boiled eggs. I use the warm apple cider vinegar-water-food dye method.
- Once dry, stuff with small paper confetti
- Cover the hole with a small piece of tissue paper dredged through a mixture of water and Elmer's glue. Let dry.
We hide them and the kids gather them, just like regular Easter eggs, but THEN we re-distribute them equally among kids and adults, count to three, crunch them in hands.....and fling confetti! Preferably on as many people as possible. It's magical! And biodegradable.
What are your favorite Holy Week traditions? Are you trying anything new this year?
We really need to work on our Holy Week traditions. So far we're not watching any TV, and we plan to keep Good Friday quiet. I have friends who don't use lights at all this week (Holy Week of Darkness!), and we're thinking about just doing that for the Triduum. These are good ideas!
ReplyDeleteI have friends who do no electricity during Holy Week too! We might do some level of that as the kids get older. Finding non-electronic ways of spending our time is something we do more consciously during Holy Week for sure!
DeleteOkay, as soon as the boys get to the age where they stop putting everything in their mouths, confetti eggs will definitely be happening. I always have way too many hard boiled eggs go bad.
ReplyDeleteThe first maggots I ever saw was on a lost hard boiled Easter egg and I swore never again! 🤢
DeleteI didn't know gringos did confetti eggs! (Or is that a bit of Mexico leaking into Texas?) ;) Either way, it's nice to know I'm not the only one saving eggshells this week! We didn't have anyone bring us any plastic Easter eggs to fill this year, so I decided that we'll stuff some candy into eggshells and that will be my kids' Easter egg hunt this year--also handy, as I'm trying to cut down on plastic.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t realize they weren’t a Texas wide tradition until college! I grew up in a very Hispanic neighborhood so that’s probably how they entered our family culture. But they are so fun, eco-friendly, and don’t stink if you miss one!
DeleteI’m trying to decide whether to try Prince of Egypt this year with my kiddos. My five year old in particular is one of those scared-by-even-Disney kids, but I’m thinking if it’s for s good cause, we stay in the same room, and he knows the story ends happily, it might be worth an attempt!
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a watch with them movie, but that’s also on purpose. I don’t do movies with bad music, writing, or premise (this is when my theater snobbery comes out to play) but that also means a lot of what we watch should be explained a bit as we go. We have read the Exodus story out of our children’s Bible many many times, and I find it helps the easy scared kids (like my 3 year old) to know why the sad stuff is happening and what this is all leading towards.
DeleteI love the idea of a Good Friday Holy Hour basket! That's really cool. On Good Friday, I typically like to spend time reading parts of "The Dolorous Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ" by Anne Catherine Emmerich and/or praying the Stations of the Cross according to the method that the Marians of the Immaculate Conception have on their website (it integrates quotes from St. Faustina's diary, and it's basically amazing). I usually try to make a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean themed meal for Holy Thursday (this year it's shawarma-style chicken and hummus with flatbread). I'm reading Pope Benedict XVI's book "Jesus of Nazareth" this Lent, and he has a really interesting discussion in there about how the Last Supper may not have been a Seder meal; reading that section made it seem even more clear to me why it just doesn't make sense to do a Christianized Seder (though I'll confess that I have been to quite a few; I've lived in places where this is a very normal practice and it's only within the past year or two that I started becoming aware of the problems with it). Some year, I'd LOVE to do the 7 Churches on Maundy Thursday tradition, though it'd take quite a bit of time and effort since Oklahoma City is very spread out geographically. And I have to say, it's probably because I'm not southern, but the idea of having a Good Friday fish fry has never really made much sense to me. I've read about it before, and it just seems rather festive and celebratory for Good Friday. I'm ALL about Lenten fish frys, but having one on this solemn and quiet day is hard for me to comprehend. Could you help my non-southern mind understand this tradition a bit better please?
ReplyDeleteOoh, also, have you seen The Miracle of Marcelino? That may be a good movie for your kids (if now now, within the next few years maybe).
It helps to remember that frying was an everyday way of cooking in the South for a long time (a lot less time with a hot kitchen) so frying in of itself is not a special occasion kind of thing. What we typically include in our fish fry is also the dirt cheap stuff. Catfish grows big and everywhere and hushpuppies are mostly cornmeal, milk, and onion.
DeleteNow the fish fry that has five sides and fancy stuff is probably not in keeping with Good Friday but I’m also not going to be pulling that level of meal for anything but Thanksgiving and Christmas!
I didn't think of the cultural context of frying for cooking at all! That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for explaining that!
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